JAYWALKING

Last semester I received a jaywalking ticket at the corner of 30th and Hoover. The only reason I got the ticket was because I stepped two feet out into the intersection to say hi to some friends stopped at the stoplight. They honked, which got a cop's attention and he drove over and gave me a citation. I didn't think they even enforced jaywalking around the college campus, people do it literally right in front of cops all the time. The worst part about it was that the cop said something would come to me in the mail, I would pay a small fine, and then I would be done with this mess. This is not at all how the process worked for me. I was not notified of the fine until this month, and the notice was about how I missed my court date and now I owe $676 and my case had been turned over to a collection agency. So I after talking to every lawyer I know, both family members and parents of friends, my only option was to go sit at the courthouse all day and petition to set another court date. After waiting for hours at the nearest courthouse, I found out all I could do at this point was pay the fine.

I have now lost faith in our justice system. They pretty much scammed me out of money for something that I believe was not a justifiable offense. So, a word to the wise: don't trust cops, especially South Central cops that don't trust anyone and obviously have no friends.